


Secrets in the Static

by MoreThanASuperstar



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Mystery, Semi Slow Burn, it's definitely cooking, moderate simmer?, sometimes you try and solve a mystery and find a boyfriend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 10,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29199456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoreThanASuperstar/pseuds/MoreThanASuperstar
Summary: Ashe is determined to find out what happened to his missing older brother. Unfortunately, his only lead is Felix, who is absolutely not interested in investigating the past.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 7
Kudos: 6
Collections: Ashe Big Bang





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for the [Ashe Big Bang!](https://twitter.com/ashebigbang) Thank you so much to the mods for running this event. This my first big bang and the longest fic I've written, and I'm exicted to use them to add some content to the ashelix fandom!! I'm posting the first section now, the second section at the end of the posting period, and the third section/end next week. 
> 
> Please check out the [amazing art for this fic by Catatune!](https://twitter.com/catatune/status/1357419838730338312?s=21) They did an amazing job and were just a wonderful person to work this. I seriously cannot get over how great the art is, it's perfect.
> 
> Enjoy!!

Ashe hadn’t even known he should be worried until one of his siblings let it slip. They had let it slip that Lonato was acting strangely on their weekly phone call, and he had spent the rest of the conversation trying to figure out what they had meant. But, of course, they kept insisting it was fine.

“Lonato’s acting weird.” 

“He’s not acting weird, you’re acting weird! Are you sure you’ll be okay staying there alone!”

“I’ll be fine” He laughed a little. It was still weird to hear his siblings worrying over him. “What do you mean, um, about Lonato.”

“Ignore him! He’s fiiiine” Aliena stretched out the word fine, which made Ashe even less convinced. 

Alan started up again, and Ashe had to hold the phone away from his ear until they quieted down. 

“He’s not being weird.” Aliena said emphatically. “Alan’s just being a worrywart. He’s just been busy - with work stuff,"” she said, using her “winning an argument with Alan” voice, which meant they had been going at this for a while.

“Not just work stuff!” Alan said, indignant and right on cue. Which meant Ashe was really worried.

Eventually, Aliena said that he had been looking into Cristophe’s case again, but it was no big deal, and Ashe shouldn’t worry and focus on his summer course. 

Ashe tried to do that for a whole week. Aliena was right, it might not mean anything, and Alan had always been more of a worrier, and why wouldn’t, and Lonato still think about the fact that his only biological child was legally still a missing person for 5 years?

He had never talked about that with Lonato, and he didn’t think Alan or Aliena would either. He knew, Christophe was irreplaceable, obviously, but he had never talked about what it meant that he was actually Lonato’s son.

He didn’t think he could do that now, but maybe he could find out what happened. If he found out what happened, Lonato would have closure, Alan and Aliena wouldn’t have to be worried, and things would be okay. It made sense. 

He opened his laptop and began to search. The incident hadn’t gotten a lot of press, because of the crisis in Duscur, but there were four local news articles, and his facebook page. Those weren't a lot of leads, but they were a place to start.

Ashe started with the news articles - he hadn’t read them when it happened, and it seemed like they would have the best overview. 

The first three articles didn’t have much of one. Just “Local Student, missing” and a request for anyone with information to come forward. There was a terrible school photo of Christophe with his hair slightly too long, looking slightly away from the camera. Even though those were in every photo, it looked like a pale copy of Ashe’s brother. 

The fourth article had something else: Tragedy marks class of ‘76! This article talked some more about Cristophe, and another student in his high school class, Glenn Fraldarius, died at around the same time. The article speculated that the two tragedies might have been connected to the attacks in northern Faerghus. That couldn’t be true. Ashe couldn’t believe that Ch had gone up to Northern Faerghus for...what. He had always thought of it as a weird coincidence, but the timing was pretty odd. He opened up a notebook he had half filled with coursework last semester, flipped it over, and wrote “Glenn Fraldarius?” on one line, and “Duscar Attack?” on the next. 

He had been on Christophe’s facebook page years ago, just to look at old pictures, and knew he wouldn’t find anything. 

But if he had been involved in something dangerous, why would he post about it on facebook? Ashe still didn’t actually have any evidence for this.

If there was a cover up, it would explain everything. It wouldn’t be a mystery. It would explain why no one had said anything. He wished he could talk to Lonato about this. But what if he was mad? Or thought he was blaming Christophe? It would be better if he could find something out on his own. Then he would be helping everyone. That's the way it would make sense. It would be like a book, or a spy movie. 

Invigorated by this theory, he scrolled through all the memorial messages. A few new ones, posted on his birthday.

But beneath the birthday ones, there was a message Ashe hadn't seen before.

"I'm so sorry".

From a “Cas Sandra”. Cassandra. He scrolled down, and saw a much longer sympathy message posted shortly after the initial announcement. He kept scrolling, waiting impatiently for the page to load. Cas Sandra was all over the page, once he got into the really old stuff. There were pictures of Christophe and a tall tan girl, making goofy faces, or just smiling at the camera. He clicked on her profile. They were obviously close. And why would she post "I'm so sorry"? Christophe's other friends were posting stuff like "I miss you man"...

It was worth investigating. Wasn’t it?

Cas Sandra hadn't used her account in years - there was nothing new. A couple friends had tagged her in memes, but she hadn’t responded to anything.

He turned the next page in his notebook and wrote "Cassandra _____, GMU?". It made him feel like he was starting a quest to write down all the clues on paper. Even if it was an old spiral bound notebook turned upside down and backwards 

He wondered if he could ask Alan or Aliena to go looking through Christophe's room without being suspicious, realized there was no way, and just googled "Cassandra GMU".

After sorting his way through the results, he stumbled across an old article in the GMU Monitor. 

Cassandra Charon, apparently, is holding a field hockey stick like it’s a weapon while her teammates cheer. The article is about GMU’s club field hockey team winning a regional tournament. Cassandra scored the winning goal. That’s something. 

He adds it to his notebook: Cassandra Charon, GMU, field hockey.

It’s not much, but it’s something. Kyphon didn’t solve the riddle of the secret crest all at once.

GMU still has club field hockey, and they have a website that lists their past record. The team from Cassandra’s year is on it, and there’s a brief profile about senior forward, Cassandra Charon. That year's team was sponsored by some religious organization, which is kind of weird. He hasn’t seen any teams at Fhirdiad sponsored by a church organization. But he hadn’t been looking hard, and besides, GMU is so close to Garreg Mach.

He added a kinesiology major and Cichol Community Fund under Cassandra’s page anyway. This is how you start an investigation, he thought.

The message he wrote to Cassandra was, well, definitely a lie. He said he was asking a bunch of Cristophes’ friends for memories of him for a gift. But it was polite. And it’ll probably go over better than, "Why did you leave a weird message on my adopted brother’s facebook page after he died?” 

After sending the message, he flipped to a new page in his notebook and wrote "Fraldarius" in big capitals across the top of the page. Then he sent an email to Commissioner Fraldarius, saying he was doing research for a class.

When he got out of class that afternoon, he had a terse email from Rodrigue's secretary, stating that commissioner Fraldarius was not interested in speaking to Reporters about the tragic incident which claimed the life of his son.

And nothing from Cassandra.

But that’s okay, he wasn’t going to give up after one setback.


	2. Chapter 2

After three weeks he had made the same amount of progress as he had on that first afternoon.

He had found Cassandra's current Facebook account. She had changed her name to Catherine, and weirdly was friends with Ashe's friend from archery club, Cyril. Cyril had known her, and had said he was one of Shamir's friends, but he didn't know her that well, but maybe if she came up with Shamir for a weekend they could grab dinner together. Ashe accepted, which gave him one lead, if Shamir actually visited, and if Catherine came up with Shamir, and if Cyril still wanted him to come. He put it in his notebook anyway. He had already been blocked on Cassandra’s old and current facebook accounts. Apparently she had changed her name to Catherine. 

He hadn’t heard anything from the Commissioner's office either.

He had read all four articles multiple times, including the comments. The only interesting one was from a user named "un_hapi" who had posted an uncapitalized rant against the church on all four. She had linked to a deleted tubetube channel, so that was a dead end. And probably nuts, too.

The church had led negotiations after the Duscur incident, and had sponsored Cassandra's field hockey team. This train of thought made him feel like a conspiracy theorist too.

When he called Alan and Aliena were as subdued as they always were when they were arguing with each other. Lonato seemed distracted, and Ashe couldn't figure if he was really troubled, or just normally busy. Would he have even noticed if the twins hadn't worried? If Aliena hadn't told him?

That was even harder to think about than the rest of it. He would have noticed. It’s not possible that he would have ignored this. 

He had floated some of his ideas by the twins, who had also acted like he was losing his mind.

Alan had yelped "you're going crazy too!" and then he had heard a scuffle as Alieana clearly tried to get the phone away from him, so that was a failure on all levels.

If he hadn’t already said he would go he would have just blown off Ingrid’s party. But she was one of the best friends he had here,and she was moving into a new apartment and she deserved for him to be there,and what good would refreshing the same pages over and over do him?

This was the part that books glossed over, where you kept looking at the same dead end over and over, and nothing worked. But he had to keep going, he owed Lonato so much. He couldn’t complain about this when it could be just him taking care of Alan and Aliena again.

Even though the only leads he has so far are a grieving father who didn't want to talk to him and a high school friend who thought it was pathetic of him to keep bothering her.

He threw the notebook on his desk and got up to change.

Since he knew a lot of Ingrid’s friends already, it was pretty easy to enjoy the party. Annette had saved his ass in precalc and her friend Mercedes. He didn’t want to explain the whole situation to them anyway. 

But eventually, he found himself in a conversation with someone he didn’t know well. A tall redhead named Sylvain who was Ingrid's friend from high school, according to Mercedes. But Mercedes had drifted to another conversation and now Sylvain was railing about how dramatic his ex girlfriend had been.

Ingrid greeted him with a punch to the shoulder. “You dumped Dorothea because you were jealous of her rehearsal schedule, don’t leave that out.”

"Yeah yeah, she told you," He said, shrugging Ingrid's hand off his shoulder.

"I see you've already met Sylvain." Ingrid said to Ashe. 

“I’m glad you’ve finally found better nerd friends.” Sylvain said.

“Just ignore him, Ashe,” said Ingrid.

“As long as you’ve stopped trying to get me and Felix to read those knight books you like so much.”

“I’d already given up on you” Ingrid said haughtily.

“You gave up on me before “Fantasy books rot your brain” Fraldarius?”

“Wait, did you say Fraldarius?” Ashe said, cutting into their back and forth.

“Yeah, Felix Fraldarius, I think I’ve told you about him” said Ingrid. “We’ve been friends for ages too.”

“Our families are all big friends,” said Sylvain, giving Ashe a scrutinizing look. “Why do you wanna know about him?”

Ashe couldn’t help but blush, Sylvain had gone from extremely friendly to cold fast.

“I, well, I,” he said, stammering a little. It was hard to come up with a good excuse that wasn’t just the truth.

“Lay off Sylvain,” Ingrid scolded.

“I, it wasn’t actually Felix I wanted to talk to, it was his dad? I’m doing a research project, about personal effects of…”

“Of?” Sylvain raised an eyebrow at him.

“I thought you were catching up on a math requirement for this summer?” Ingrid said, and Ashe took a deep breath. He wanted to flee but then his friendship with Ingrid would be ruined.

“You’re right,” he said.

This is important. He can’t lose his only lead.

“My own brother, um, adoptive brother, anyway, he went missing about the same time as Glenn Fraldarius, and I think there might be a link between the cases.” 

“It’s always brothers, huh,” Sylvain sighed, the ice receding. 

“What makes you think there’s a connection?” Ingrid sounded nervous.

“I don’t know that there is, to be honest, but they happened in the same month of the same year, and well... I don’t have any other leads, and at the very least, I need to rule it out. It really is important to me, Ingrid.” Ingrid is his friend. She’ll hear him out. 

Ingrid nodded seriously. 

“Mr. Fraldarius won’t talk to you?” She asked, like she already knows his answer.

“No.”

“He’ll haaaate this,” Sylvain said, mostly to Ingrid.

“I’ll send you his number, but Ashe, Felix can be...” Ingrid trailed off into nothing, turning to her phone.

Sylvain spoke up. “He won’t want to talk about this much more than Rodrigue, but I’ll ask him too.”

“Thanks, uh, I really appreciate it.” Ashe said, unsure how to respond to this sudden gift. 

“I don’t know anything about this situation,” Sylvain responded with a shrug, “but if you and your brother were as close as Glenn and Felix, I hope you find your answer.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's felix time

Sylvain had texted him last night, and told him he could meet Felix at work the next day, when there was a free spot in his schedule. So he had taken the bus to the gym armed with Caspar’s cleanest shaker cup and a voucher for a free personal training session he had won from something. Caspar had even offered to make him a protein shake. But he wasn’t actually planning on a workout.

Felix worked at a nice gym. Ashe felt out of place as he walked by the woman texting at the front desk. After wandering around the free weight section, he saw a section marked off for personal trainers. And a man slouching near the back of it. Found him!

“Hi, Are you Felix Fraldarius,” he said, trying to sound friendly. He didn’t want to get on Felix’s bad side before he even had a chance to talk to him.

Felix just scowled at him. 

“My name is Ashe, and, Sylvain told me you had some time to talk,” Felix scowled harder somehow. So much for not getting on his bad side.

His scowl lightened. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking on Ashe’s part.

“My next client is in an hour, what did you want to talk about?”

“Ah, I was wondering if you would be willing to answer some questions about your brother, G--”

Ashe could barely get the word out before Felix snapped, “No. Absolutely not.”

“I’m sorry, I thought Sylvain told you why I was coming to talk to you.”

“Clearly, he did not.” Felix said, every word sounding more furious than the last. “Now go.”

“Ah, wait a sec, just” Ashe rifled through his pockets, and pulled out his phone, calling up the personal training coupon. “One free session of personal training!”

Ashe presented his phone to Felix, who leaned in, as if he was looking for any issue he could find with it. Apparently there was none, and for a second Ashe was afraid he was going to grab his phone and throw it across the room.

“I need.” Felix said, sounding pained, “to talk to Dorothea.” Felix stalked off, looking like an angry cat. Ashe smiled at that thought as Felix had a short but intense conversation with Dorothea, who was apparently the woman texting at the front desk.

“Dorothea said if you don’t mind a short session, she can book you now.”

“I don’t!” Ashe said, relieved this plan had worked.

“Great.” Felix said, sounding murderous. “Dorothea will just check you in. I hope you brought gym clothes.”

“Let’s just get started!” His own cheerfulness sounded exaggerated to him too.

“Follow me” Felix bit out the words, and then stalked off like an angry cat. 

Ashe trailed after him, trying to act like he belonged there, and like he hadn’t just pissed off the person he had come here to talk too. Really he should be happy, because he had convinced Felix to talk with him for forty five minutes. Unfortunately, Felix turned around then.

“You sure look pleased with yourself.” He said, sounding coldly furious.   


“I’m, I-I mean, I’m happy you were able to see me today” He said, tripping over his words. 

Felix snorted. “Dorothea said I had too. But you signed up for a personal training session, so let’s begin.”

Ashe sat on the couch in the gym lobby and waited for his legs to stop quivering. He was covered in sweat. He didn’t think he was that out of shape, but Felix had been absolutely brutal 

Every time Ashe had tried to ask a question Felix had told him to do another workout, another rep, or to go harder. 

His amber eyes were intense as told Ashe to squat deeper. How could Ashe even be thinking about his eyes? He thought that Felix would have to talk to him eventually, but instead Felix had stonewalled him at every turn, strong hands briskly adjusting Ashe’s form. 

He really was exhausted if he was thinking about Felix’s hands grazing over him, his strong shoulders beneath his tank top.

Since they’re never going to talk again, it’s better to focus on the fact that he’s handsome than the fact that his exciting new lead was actually another dead end, Ashe reasoned to himself. 

After a few more minutes of flipping through social media, Ashe looked up, mentally prepared for the walk to the bus stop on his jello legs. 

Across from him was Felix, those same amber eyes looking at him with, not with fury, but with interest.

“I wanted to see how you were doing,” he said. “It was a pretty intense workout today.”

Ashe tried to smile “I didn’t think I was so out of shape!” Maybe he could still get something out of Felix.

Felix looked away from him, gazing across the gym “Why did you really come here today?”

“It’s really what I said. I wanted to ask you about Glenn Fraldarius “

Felix snorted, and Ashe wondered what was wrong with him, that he could think the man who had spent an hour barking did anything cute.

“Bullshit.” Now they were back on familiar territory

“I’m serious. My brother disappeared around the same time Glenn died. I thought if I found out what happened to him it would help uh, people, move on”

“Who’s people?”

“His dad.”

Felix abruptly lifted his eyes to his and then cast them away just as quickly. Maybe Ashe only thought they were remarkable because he didn’t make a lot of eye contact. That would make more sense, so that must be it.

“You can’t convince someone else to stop wasting their life obsessing over the past. You can only drag yourself down with them. ” 

It was Ashe’s turn to look away, down at the floor between them. “What do you mean?”

“The past is past. Trying to endlessly figure out why won’t make any difference.”

“I don't think that’s true. I like history!”

Felix snorted, again. “I’m not talking about history. You didn’t come here for history”

“That’s true, but--”

“So what if someone else died at the same time as Glenn?”

“But that’s the thing! He didn’t die, he’s a missing person. I mean, he probably is…” Ashe trailed off. Even if it was most likely true, saying it was hard. “He probably is dead, but I want to know for sure.”

“So you think if you find out that he died in the Duscur embassy bombing, you’ll what? Feel better about it?”

“Yes, I do. I don’t think it’ll fix things, but...what if your brother had never been found, after? Wouldn’t you just want to know? So since, he did vanish, around the same time as a major incident. I thought...” He trailed off again.  


“That isn’t an unreasonable guess,” Felix admitted. “But what would you do about it?”

“Well, there’s nothing I could do. But, I want to know. I do think that matters.”

“You’re doing this for someone else too. His dad, you said?” Ashe wasn’t sure what Felix was getting at, before it hit him.

“Yeah, his dad adopted me.” 

Felix stood up easily, since he hadn’t been the one doing squats and lunges for the past hour. “I hope you can find something.”

“Thanks. I mean, uh, well. I don’t agree with your personal philosophy. But I think. Well. Thanks for the training. You’re pretty cool,” Ashe rambled, clearly losing his mind, finally.

Felix looked just as confused by that outburst as Ashe had been by his pronouncement.

“You’re welcome,” He finished, brusque as when Ashe had first approached him and turned back to the gym.

Ashe watched him walk away, furious at the lower body strength in his slender legs. He looked the same as Ashe from behind, not that Ashe was looking.

At least he could say he’d gotten his workout for the day.

He had a text from Caspar asking how his workout had gone in all caps with a lot of arm emojis, and a text from Ingrid asking if Felix had been too much of a dick.

He told Caspar that he was really going to feel it tomorrow, and told Ingrid that Felix hadn’t wanted to talk, but he hadn’t been a total dick either.

Maybe Felix did have a point. It’s too bad Ashe hadn’t met him at that party. They could have just talked about normal stuff and had a drink together. Felix would probably be nicer if Ashe hadn’t sprung this on him. He seemed interesting to talk to. 

Suddenly, he realized why he had thought Felix was cool. He was just like the lead character in “The Mystery of Kyphon’s Shield.” 

He could never talk to him again.


	4. Chapter 4

Ashe slept until noon the next day, which didn’t give him that much time to spend before work, which was probably just as well. He couldn't make Felix talk, or anyone else for that matter. Maybe he should drop it, after all.

He can still look after his siblings, he’s an adult, legally. Even if the worst happens, and Lonato can’t or won’t take care of them anymore, which won’t happen. Anyway, if it does, he can take care of the twins legally. So it would be fine.

He could get an apartment, a bigger one, with two bedrooms. Or he could sleep on the couch in this one. Though he thinks rents are cheaper near Gaspard anyway.

His plans on getting a new job near Gaspard were disrupted by the shattering of his coffee cup, shattering all over his kitchen floor.

“Shit!” Now he didn’t have time for coffee if he wanted to be on time for work. It’s not like coffee was hard to get in a coffee shop, but he wanted time to actually drink it.

He didn’t get a chance to look at his phone until he took his break that afternoon, and he spent the first ten minutes of that focused on resting his legs after the toture they had endured yesterday followed by most of a shift on his feet.

He spent five precious minutes just enjoying being off his feet before looking at his phone. A text from Aliena, with a picture of the pasta dish she had made last night. And a text from an unknown number.

Ashe opened it, “This is Felix. Sylvain gave me your number. I won’t answer any questions for you, but I can get you some official investigations paperwork around the incident. Not everything made it into the news.”

He gasped out loud. 

First Ashe responded to Aliena, with a lot of thumbs up and chef emojis. 

Then he opened the text from Felix, rereading it like it would explain what made him change his mind. He wanted to ask what did change it. But mostly he wanted to sound, well, like someone a person as cool as Felix could take seriously. 

He didn’t want Felix to see him as a nuisance, someone who showed up to his workplace to pester him about things.

Well, any more than he already did. He had wished he could replay his first meeting with Felix since he’d walked out of the gym. 

I wish I had your leg strength? Do you think my theory makes sense? I wish I could believe what you did?

“Thanks! What changed your mind,” no, he doesn’t want to make him justify himself.

“Thanks! That would be really helpful. Can we talk later tonight?”

A few seconds, then.

“No.”

Another few seconds, then.

“I hate talking on the phone. Could we meet tomorrow after I get off work? For coffee or whatever”

Ashe forced himself to wait a beat. Felix responded quickly, but he still wanted to seem slightly above it. Not like he’s desperate for a little bit of possible knowledge.

He took a deep breath, and then another before looking at his phone clock. There’s more time than the thought left on his break. Now that Felix is here, in front of him, he’s scared to reach out and take it.

He’s not sure what he’d do if it turns out to be something. He’s not sure what he’d do if this turns out to be nothing.

He forces himself to take a deep breath in, and looks over to the counter where Dedue is on his own. There aren’t that many people in today, thankfully. He idly calculates how many more shifts he could pick up here, if he had to, and didn’t have class.

When he couldn’t look away from his phone any longer there were two minutes before he had to go back. He had wasted his whole break instead of actually talking to Felix.

He opened up the phone and sent Felix a text saying that that sounds good, the time he got off work tomorrow, and the address of the cafe.

It’s kind of weird, inviting Felix to his actual workplace. But if he’s one of Ingrid’s friends it couldn’t be dangerous to let him know where it is. Even if he was super in shape and super angry all the time.

Anyway, Felix isn’t really offering him anything dangerous. He’s offering to use his connections to get him some old files. Which is fine. It's probably nothing for him .

Between knowing he was going to meet Felix tomorrow and waiting on Yuri’s phone call, Ashe couldn’t seem to sit down and focus on anything, not his homework, not even the fourth Loog and Kyphon book.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's heisting time

Felix walked up to the counter in the middle of shift. If Ashe was writing a book, he would describe him as sauntering. He’s not, even if Felix would make a much cooler lead than Ashe would. 

“Hi! What can I get for you today?” Ashe jumped into his customer service script on autopilot. “Ah, I mean, Hi Felix, I didn’t expect to see you! Um, would you like anything, though?” 

“Black coffee would be great. A medium,” he said. “I talked to the old man last night.”

“Great! I mean, thanks! What did he say? Oh, first let me get your coffee.” Ashe took a few moments longer making the coffee than was necessary so he could collect himself. He had been practically shrieking back there. 

Felix hadn’t seemed very happy about the idea of talking to his father. Ashe was surprised he had done it that very night. He clearly thought Ashe had a solid theory, despite his belief that it was useless to look into the past.

When he turned around, Annette was back from the walk in with an armload of drinks to put in the case out front. 

He turned around and carefully walked the coffee back to the counter. He managed to get it to Felix without spilling it, but only just. He usually wasn’t clumsy at work like this.

“What did he say? Oh, also that will be -”

“On the house!” Annette chirped from the drinks case. “Also, I can take over if you want to go on your break Ashe!” 

Felix gave Annette an intense look, which seemed to be the default for him. 

“What! I can give my friend a free drink, Mercie won’t mind. Also, you should finish your conversation with Ashe!”

Felix continued to look intense but instead grumbled, “Thanks.”

Annette looked pretty scheming for someone in pigtails as she chirped, “Enjoy your talk!”

.

They walked to a table in the back in silence. However Felix’s talk with Rodrigue had gone, Ashe wasn’t going to get anything from it. He wanted Felix to just say it, but he didn’t actually want to end their conversation. 

Felix sat in the seat across from him and stared intensely at his coffee.

“The old man won’t give you confidential papers. He says he won’t have his son's memory dragged through the mud, when he died honorably.” Felix’s voice was tight.

“Oh. Thank you for trying though, I mean it.” Ashe said, unsure what else to say. 

Felix looked up, right at him. It was more than he expected, having that fierce gaze directly on him. 

“We’re going to take them.”

“We’re, what?” Ashe said, voice going squeaky again. He wished this would stop happening around Felix. 

“I took his office keys, the spare set he’s not supposed to have in his desk, and the notebook where he writes all his passwords, which is so stupid, so of course he does.” 

“So we’re going to what? Just break into his office?” Ashe whispered. This was something he could do. This was not something he wanted to do.

Lonato had caught him breaking into his house, and had adopted him and his siblings. It felt wrong to break into somewhere else to help him. Ashe didn’t want to be that person.

“Yes,” said Felix, “Just because he wants to keep Glenn’s memory in a bottle doesn’t mean he can keep doing that at the expense of people who are still here.”

He paused for so long that Ashe almost spoke up, but then he said. “You deserve the truth. Not so you can obsess over the past, but so you can live your life.” 

Ashe nodded. They were on the same page after all. “That’s all I want.”

“Then let’s do it. On Friday night he has an office dinner, so no one will be working late. The cleaner goes around until seven, but then it should be empty.”

“So, ah, We’ll just...walk in?” Said Ashe, trying to rationalize it. If they had a set of keys, it wouldn’t actually be breaking in. Even if Felix had stolen the keys. He was going to put them back, so that was fine. It wasn’t going to be a problem. It was going to be a one time thing. 

“Yeah. if they’ve been digitized, we’ll be able to get into his computer too.”

“Um Felix, just, today’s Thursday.” 

Felix looked confused, but didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah. Is that going to be a problem?”

“No, no, my shift tomorrow ends at four, and it sounds like we can’t get in until seven.”

Felix looked awkward now. Ashe hoped he didn’t think that Ashe’s schedule was a liability. Or that Ashe was.

“So I’ll meet you outside the Fhirdiad Council building at seven?”

“Meet me at the Lion Gate Subway station. I’ll show you the back entrance.”

This was actually a good thought. Ashe wondered how much planning Felix had done. Well, not much, if they had to go tonight. But enough. 

“And you don’t even need to put on black clothes” He said, trying to make a joke, but ending up sounding very nervous. He didn't either. He should try and dress like the cleaners, but it won’t come up. Right?

Felix didn’t even crack a smile. “I’ll let you have the rest of your break. I’ll see you at seven.”

He stalked off. Ashe pressed his head flat against the table for the remaining three minutes of his break. 

The rest of his shift passed without incident. Even Annette’s inevitable spill was minor.


	6. Chapter 6

Since Felix was going out of his way to drive him, the least he could do was provide some snacks. Annette had taken his shift, asked a lot of questions about the “family stuff” he couldn’t really answer, and told him that Felix liked beef jerky and salt and vinegar potato chips. 

An ancient black sedan made a three point turn and stopped in front of his building. Felix opened the passenger door. Ashe hadn’t really imagined what Felix’s car looked like, but it wasn’t that.

"Wow" He said, because he hadn't expected that. “I mean, I just,” He sputtered, unsure how to make “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect your car to be such a piece of shit” sound like an apology.

"It came with most of them" Felix said, sounding actually embarrassed about it. It was cute on him, even though he was still a grump.

"Well, at least you have a car," Ashe said.

"It'll get us there."

"I bought car snacks," Ashe said, lifting up his backpack. "Annette said you don't really like sweet snacks, so I got jerky and pretzels"

It was a wet overcast day as they got on the highway out of Fhirdiad. Ashe wasn’t awake enough to chat much, and apparently neither was Felix. They had stopped for coffee, and Felix had insisted on paying.

"At least let me pay for gas," Ashe said, for what felt like the millionth time.

"I didn't do this to get gas money," Felix said, for what also felt like the millionth time.

"Well, I really appreciate it." Ashe said and looked out the window. The sun was breaking through the clouds as the strip malls spread into a flat scrubby landscape. Ashe thought he could see the mountains that surrounded Garreg Mach. One thing he missed in Fhirdiad was seeing mountains in the distance in every direction.

"So why did you do this?" he asked, not able to look at Felix while he asked.

"What do you mean? Also where's our next exit?"

"Exit 39, signs for Arianrhod. Then we'll take Magdred Way east until we hit Garreg Mach." He didn't even need to look at his phone for this one.

He looked over at Felix, who nodded at that.

"I mean, it’s just that, you already helped me break into a government building."

"It's my dad's office, he wishes I would go in there more."

"Ah, probably not like that, but what I mean is" Ashe didn't know what he meant. Felix had been mad and then said he'd help and then kissed him.

“I told you why I’m doing this.” He said, terse. 

“I appreciate that you want to help me with it, but I know it's hard for you to talk about your brother. So I appreciate you digging that up to help me find out what happened to mine, I think I mean."

Felix hmmphed, but said “I did want to come. I really want to find out what happened.”

Ashe looked at him, curious. “Even though you think it’s silly to spend so much time on the past.”

Felix blushed, and actually looked embarrassed. 

“I don’t think it’s silly,” He paused for a long moment. “I just don’t think you should throw your life away on it. You’re not doing it because you think your brother’s memory should be preserved in a trophy case forever, you’re doing it to protect the people who are still here. That isn’t silly”

It was Ashe’s turn to blush. “Thanks Felix. And you know, if you want to talk about your own brother, it’s okay.”

Felix’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the wheel tighter. 

“He died. He was perfect, but I won’t let myself wallow in misery.”

Felix looked up at him.

“You can’t waste your life focusing on the dead. That’s what my old man does. It’s not stupid to go after the truth.”

Ashe looked at him. “Do you really think it’s so different?”

“Yes. You aren't turning away from the truth, or wallowing in the past, you’re trying to find out what really happened.”

“But you don’t think I need to know to move on?” Ashe pressed, not sure what he wanted Felix to say. 

Felix sighed. “They’re still gone. Knowing why doesn’t make you feel better. My brother, he was a junior staffer who had been chosen to come on the diplomatic trip to Duscur.”

Ashe pressed his forehead against the cool glass of the window but let Felix talk.

“My old man keeps talking about how he died doing something he loved, but that doesn’t make it better. He’s still gone.” He paused for a long moment then continued. “But I don’t think it’s foolish to pursue your ideals. Even if it won’t fix everything.”

Ashe sighed as his breath fogged up the glass. “At first I thought if I found out, Lonato would be able to move on. But, it made me realize how badly I wanted to know. I think, if I can actually do something, that will help, on its own.

“You really are just like Kyphon.”

“What?”

“I used to read them with my brother.” Felix said, sounding fond.

Ashe felt the silence between them to grow comfortable, and then decided he might as well just say it and clear the air between them.

"Also, um. We kissed outside to the building." Stupid, obviously Felix was there, he knows they kissed.

“And at the bus stop.”

He looked over at Felix, who kept his eyes aggressively on the road. 

"And I wanted to say, I guess, that it's okay! I know we were both worked up, and I mean, sometimes, stuff just happens and obviously we don't need to, ah, make a big deal out of it or anything."

"Ashe" Said Felix, his voice low.

Ashe kept rambling "I just wanted to clear the air, before we got here and uh, you know just make sure."

"I liked it. Obviously we don't have to do it again or whatever."

Ashe clamped his jaw shut before he could say anything else stupid. He could feel his face burning red and looked out the window so Felix couldn't tell.

Then he saw it.

"Felix! there's our exit"

Felix swore and merged onto Magdred Way eastbound, cutting off two cars.

"Wow"

"We got on the right highway." Felix said, back to sounding grumpy.

"Yep! We're on our way!"

Once they were back on the open highway, Ashe said again. "I really did like it too, I just didn’t want you to feel like you had too.”

“I’d be more worried about you feeling like you had too.” Felix said and then seemed to realize what he had said.

Now it was Ashe's turn to cut him off.

"No, I really do." and put his hand out palm up over the armrest, nudging Felix's arm slightly.

Felix took his hand, gave it a slight squeeze. and returned it to the steering wheel.

He must have sensed Ashe's incredulous look.

"You need both hands to drive. Ten and two."

"I don't think you need both hands on the wheel at all times."

“Do you even have a driver's license?  


"No, but I know that"

"That’s probably why you don’t have one." Felix was actually grinning. 

“Hmmph,” Ashe replied and nudged his shoulder. "I don't think you can talk, you haven't gone the speed limit since we left this morning"

"When you’re the one driving, you can go as fast as you want," Felix said.

Felix stashed the car in a disgusting parking garage in downtown Garreg Mach. Ashe made a note of where the ticket machine was, determined not to let Felix pay for it. But before they made it out the door, Ashe drew Felix into a small corner and kissed him again. Felix had an almost imperceptible grin on his face as they walked into the sun.

Since neither of them wanted to sneak in during the day, they went into the cathedral with all the tourists and milled around.

"Have you been here before?" Felix asked, as they looked at the four extremely well kept saint statues.

"Yeah. I grew up in Gaspard, so it's not too far from here."

"I barely went to church in Fhirdiad.” Felix said, sounding amused.

"I only went here for school trips and stuff," said Ashe. "Though, my family’s pretty religious besides, well my dad is, and my older brother was."

"Did they drive up here a lot?"

Ashe laughed a little at that. "Gaspard’s still an hour away. I only went here for something besides a field trip when my brother went to college up here.”  


“I guess it makes sense your brother went to GMU then.”

“Yeah,” Ashe said, trailing off as he remembered dropping Cristophe off in his dorm, waving until he was out of sight. He wondered if he would ever think of him without feeling his heart clench in his chest. “We were all so excited for him.” 

Felix snorted. “We were all so excited for Glenn, getting that internship with the state department. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Ashe looked up at the statues. The saints images had always seemed comforting when he was younger. Like maybe they would care about you, if they knew you. Now they looked like they were judging him.

“It feels wrong now. I know we didn’t know, you know, what would happen. But it still feels like we should have stopped them.”

“We couldn’t have.” said Felix finally.

“Is that why you don’t like talking about it?” Ashe ventured.

Felix looked up at the ceiling. “All anyone wants to talk about is how brave Glenn was, or how he died for some good cause. Making themselves feel better about it.”

“I’ll talk about him. If you want.” Ashe offered, looking up at the ceiling after Felix. 

Felix shrugged but didn’t say anything. Ashe reached forward and took his hand, and Felix took it and pulled him towards the transept, past the saint statues, and into the bright summer sun. Ashe blinked, needing to adjust after the dimness of the cathedral. The cathedral was on top of a mountain, and from this side of it you could look straight down at the cars rushing across the highway below.

“Felix, are you-” he started, but Felix cut him off with an intense kiss. Ashe leaned up into it, opening his mouth and sending his tongue darting out. Ashe let himself be distracted by the kiss. After all, they had all day together.


	7. Chapter 7

He spread the papers out on his table as soon as he walked in the door, scanning them for any relevant words. He started a pile of papers that looked relevant, but after going through all the papers, the pile hadn’t grown at all. It consisted of one small stack of printouts, stapled together.

The printout was a list of groups with “potential terrorist involvement”. One of the listed groups was a student organization associated with Garreg Mach university. Christophe was religious, and that was the school he had gone to. He flipped through the file, and saw Cristophes name as a person of interest. It mentioned his mysterious disappearance as a suspicious factor, and suggested making an APB on his name and photo.

Had Cristophe fled? 

It was easy to create a story where Cristophe was living in witness protection, and waiting for Ashe to clear his name! And then he could come home. Ashe imagined himself, poring over microfiche to find the piece of evidence that would clear his brother’s name. 

Except, even in the letter, he was a potential suspect who was missing. The disappearance had happened before he was suspected of any crime. Maybe he had committed a crime, but for a good cause. Ashe had done that too. 

Either way, he needs to go to Garreg Mach. He falls asleep thinking about how much a train ticket will cost, and how to convince Lysithea or Cyril to cover his shift.

And tomorrow morning, he’ll call Felix. He doesn’t need to mention the kiss, but he wants Felix to know that it was useful, what he had found. 

He waited as long as he could to call Felix that morning. He didn’t want to look like he was too interested or too affected by the kiss. He really tried. He made coffee, checked his phone, ate a bowl of cereal on his couch, started working on his homework, thought of Felix instead of his reading. went back to look at the pile of papers all over the table.

It was still early, but not too early to call someone. Anyway, he would just send a text. “Thanks for all your help!! I found something, but it’s in garreg mach. Let me know if you need me to return those papers.” 

Ashe had managed to look away from his phone for two minutes when it buzzed.

“There was something useful?”

After a moment’s embarrassment, since apparently even Felix didn’t think they would find anything useful in there, his phone buzzed again.

“What did you find?”

Ashe, like an idiot responded “come over, you can look at it yourself”

  
“There’s only one.”

“Also I have coffee!”

And then sent his address. But after breaking into a building, stealing classified documents, and kissing Felix, it couldn’t be that weird to have him over for breakfast. But, also he probably had work, or other plans, that would make it impossible to come over just because Ashe wanted to see him and talk over a stolen piece of paper. 

His phone buzzed. “See you soon.”

Ashe realized he had no idea how long it would take for Felix to get to his apartment. So he spent the next 20 minutes frantically cleaning. He thought he kept his apartment pretty neat, but the thought of Felix seeing it made him 

Having Felix in his house should have been a lot weirder. Instead it was nice. He had been so nervous once Felix arrived he had offered him just about every possible drink and food item he had around. But now they both had cups of coffee and were sitting on the couch, looking at the last paper 

Felix looked up at him, and down at the paper a few times. Ashe might have thought he looked intense- he still kind of did- but now Ashe could see he looked thoughtful, and concerned.

“So what are you going to do now?” He said.

“I guess I’m going to go down to Garreg Mach,” Ashe said. Even though he spent all last night thinking about it, telling Felix made it feel like a real plan.  
  
“I was about to buy a bus ticket, it’s not such a bad trip.” He continued.

“I could come with you,” Felix said. “You might need help, finding answers, or a lookout even.”

Ashe had only planned to interview people, not to break into any more buildings. But it would be really nice to have Felix with him.

“It would be nice. But only if you want, and don’t have any plans, and, “ He couldn’t think of another reason for Felix not to come.

“I do want,” said Felix, sounding amused. “I’ve come this far with you, I want to see this through.”

He then added, prickly “And because I can’t watch you throw yourself at this on your own.”

“Thanks, Felix,” Ashe said.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> obviously nothing will go wrong here

Ashe took the bus to the stop a few blocks from Lion Gate Station to meet Felix. Public transportation in Fhirdiad sucked, but Ashe couldn’t really complain since Gaspard didn’t even have a subway.

He texted Dedue on his way there. It would be better to tell him more in case he got caught, it was already so much to explain. And Dedue didn’t need all that to worry about besides. 

He just said that he was going out with Ingrid’s friend Felix. Dedue texted that he hoped Ashe had a good time, and to text him when he got home. 

Nothing was going to go wrong, of course. Felix was just going to let them in. But he was glad that Dedue knew where he was going.

He had barely gotten off the platform before he spotted Felix, dressed in all black. It was practically the same outfit he had worn yesterday, but Ashe still winced. It felt like Felix was screaming “We are breaking and entering!” He was wearing the same black pants he wore as a barista and grey shirt, which

He waved at Felix and ran over.

Felix gave him a once over. “Is that what you're wearing?”

So he had dressed specifically for burglary.

“I wanted to look inconspicuous.” He said. “Especially since I took the bus here.” It was silly to think that Felix would think less of him for admitting he had done this before but shoplifting from a grocery store wasn’t the same as this.

Lonato had made it so he didn’t have to keep doing that. So it was okay to steal again, to take that risk, to help him.

Besides, Felix had keys so it wasn’t the same.

They walked over to the building in silence. Felix kept looking over to him, but Ashe couldn’t think of anything to say.

What if they found something. What if they found something awful? What if it wouldn’t make anything better, but made it worse. But just because two tragedies happened in the same month didn’t mean they were connected. But wouldn’t it be worse to find nothing? He forced himself to look at Felix.

“Thanks for helping me!” He said, trying to be cheerful and natural.

“It’s nothing.”

Ashe couldn’t think of another conversation starter, so they spent the rest of the walk in silence.

A few times, Ashe caught Felix looking at him. Mostly because he kept looking over at Felix.

They got into the building without any issues, and Felix led them through a maze of cubicles without any issues, stopping in front of a nondescript office. 

Ashe said, in a whisper, “I never would have been able to find this without your help.”

Felix replied at a normal volume, “No one’s in here, we don’t have to whisper.”

“Oh, oh right” Ashe said, also at a normal volume.

“I’m just trying to say, I really appreciate it.”

  
“Don’t thank me yet,” Said Felix dryly, and put the other key in the door to the office.

It didn’t go in. Felix flipped it over, and tried it upside down. 

It still didn’t fit. Felix rattled the doorknob like it would shake the lock loose and glared at the keyring.

“Fuck. Why would the old man keep a useless key in his desk this whole time.”

“He probably just forgot to throw it out.” Ashe tried to hide how disappointed he was. There had to be something in those files. He couldn’t have made Felix do all this just to turn around. He couldn’t have broken in somewhere again for no reason. 

He didn’t want to go all this way to give up.

“Felix…” He couldn’t make himself say it.

“What” Felix snapped back. He still couldn’t bring himself to actually say it out loud. Instead he darted over to a desk and began rifling through the office supplies.

“There’s nothing in there.” Felix was turning to walk out the door, but Ashe had exactly what he needed. Instead of following Felix, he began bending the two paper clips into shape against the surface of the desk.

“Felix! Felix, wait! We, uh, we can still get in. Ah, we don’t need a key” Felix turned around and opened his mouth as if to ask how. Ashe held up his makeshift lock picks before he could form the question.

His expression became one of surprise. “You know how to pick locks?”

Ashe just nodded. Felix strode back over. “Come on then.”

Felix watched Ashe pick the lock over his shoulder so intently that Ashe lost his focus three times before Ashe asked him to give him some space. Felix was doing a terrible job not staring at him. He was pacing back and forth - walking to the receptionist desk and staring at Ashe from there, walking to the printer and staring at Ashe from there - over and over again.

Ashe tried to ignore him. Pretended he was showing Yuri what he’d been practicing on the old padlock. Sitting behind the school building, in the rain, listening as Yuri patiently talked in through it.

The lock opened with a click, and Felix practically ran over.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Felix was standing right next to him. “Can I see how you did it?”

“Uh,I read it in a book,” Ashe said. Felix frowned.

“I would have read those stupid books you and Ingrid like so much if they taught you how to pick locks,” Felix said indignantly. 

“What? Were you and Ingrid talking about me? Anyway, uh, we should find those files and get out,” Felix looked abashed, but nodded and they went into the office.

“I know my dad’s filing system, and I don’t think he’s changed the locks on his files. But if he has….” Felix looked him right in the face and smiled as he trailed off.

Ashe turned bright pink. “Uh, I hope he didn’t but yeah.” It’s not that the file locks looked so complex, it’s that Felix’s enthusiasm made Ashe feel even more ashamed. He wouldn’t think Ashe was exciting if he knew he had just been stealing electronics out of other kids lockers. He would know Ashe was actually a thief, and level the full force of his judgement at him. 

“Here, you take that drawer, and I’ll take this one.” Felix pointed to two drawers, in the bottom of their filing cabinets.

“That one’s where he keeps personal stuff, I’ll look in there.”

Ashe filtered through files of paper, mostly finding city budget reports and old meeting minutes.

“Got it!” Felix said triumphantly. Ashe slammed the filing cabinet shut, not even trying to keep quiet.

“What did you find, let me see!” 

Felix offered the papers to him and froze, holding them in the space between them as a door creaked in the distance.

Ashe stiffened and ran to turn out the light in the office. 

“You said no one would be here!” He hissed. This was a mistake. They were about to get caught and he was about to make everything so much worse.

“I didn’t think there would be. I can just say I’m picking up something for the old man.” Felix hissed back. There was no way Ashe was going to stick around to see if someone would buy it. 

“Is there another exit?”

Felix thought, and then nodded. “Yeah there’s an exit on the other side of the block, follow me.” 

Ashe silently moved around the room and shut all the drawers. Felix was still holding on to the papers. Ashe almost wanted to tell him to put them back. 

He nodded at Felix and they walked slowly away from the entrance. Ashe could feel his heart trying to beat out of his chest as they moved. Felix was graceful, as well as ripped. Ashe might be the one more likely to make a noise by accident.

The side door had an emergency exit sign declaring that an alarm would sound once the door was opened.

Ashe stopped short. They were trapped, he was going to be caught again. He wondered if he could hide somewhere while whoever was in there got their lunchbook and ran. While Ashe was frozen, Felix pushed through the door. Ashe grabbed Felix’s hand and ran. 

They made it down the block and ducked into another alleyway. Ashe was practically panting, and even Felix was breathing harder. 

“Do you still have them?” He asked. Felix nodded, with a triumphant grin. 

“Now they’ll know someone was in there. I should have waited.” Felix said, concerned.

“But we did it!” Ashe said, too giddy with their success to worry about it right now.

“We did,” said Felix, and he was smiling too, softly. He stepped forward and handed the papers to Ashe, and he put them in his empty backpack.

“Thank you so much Felix, I don’t think I ever can repay you.”  


“Teach me how to pick locks.” He said, the grin on his face growing wider.

Felix had stepped in close to hand Ashe the pile of papers, and hadn’t moved away. He wondered if Felix could hear his heart beating. 

They were the same height. For some reason he had assumed Felix was taller. 

He had them, he had done it. 

And Felix had been with him. He had taken such a risk for him, all because he understood how important this was to Ashe. He had heard Ashe out, and decided that Ashe’s theory, Ashe’s need to find out the truth, was important enough to do all this.

And in the dim light, with that soft smile on his face, he was absolutely beautiful. 

Ashe leaned forward and kissed him. It didn’t feel real until Felix kissed back. When they pulled away, Felix’s cheeks were bright pink. 

“Uh, sorry. I, what I meant was, ah, thank you. For helping me.”

Felix looked down and away again. “You don’t need to apologize.”

“Oh. Well, I do need to thank you, really. It’s so important to me, and you did more than I could ever--”

Felix grabbed his hand and cut him off

“I know. I know that there are people you want to protect. I would have done anything for my brother too.”

Ashe nodded, his face stubbornly refusing to cool. “Thank you. I. Should get home though.”

Felix nodded. 

“How are you getting home?” Ashe asked

“Sylvain will give me a ride. We’re meeting outside the Burger Margrave on 15th.” The opposite direction from the bus stop, the part of Ashe that was still focused on the kiss observed.

Ashe looked at his phone, trying to call up the bus schedule.

“I can wait for your bus though.” He said, stiff as though they hadn’t just robbed a government building together or kissed.

“Yeah, that would be nice.” Ashe said. “The stop’s just that way. 

They fell into step, walking around the corner to Ashe’s stop.

After an awkward moment, Felix began. “Ingrid told me that you read the same Loog and Kyphon books, and that’s why you became friends.”

Ashe laughed. “It’s true! They’re really good! Have you read them.”

Felix made a disagreeable noise and then said. “They’re pretty silly”

“Silly! How can you say that?” Ashe said, not caring if he raised his voice a little. 

The stupid argument about the Loog and Kyphon books lasted them too the bus stop, and until Ashe’s bus pulled up. Felix knew almost as much about the series as Ingrid, even if only complained about them. 

Ashe almost laughed as Felix finished his rant on why Kyphon’s arc in the tenth book ruined his character when his bus pulled into the station.

“This is me,” Ashe said, sad to be leaving Felix but dying to read those papers. 

Suddenly, Felix leaned in and kissed him. It was barely more than a peck. Ashe felt his face heat, knowing it must be bright red by now. Felix was also blushing furiously.

“I’m going to meet Sylvain, bye,” He said, and stalked off as though he hadn’t just kissed Ashe, more like he had just punched someone. 

On the train home Ashe thought about the kiss and Felix more than he thought about the papers in his backpack.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> plans are made

He spread the papers out on his table as soon as he walked in the door, but quickly realized that there wasn’t anything there.

He saw one piece of paper that looked relevant right on top, paperclipped to a larger packet, and set it aside. Once he had gone through all the papers, his pile of relevant ones was still just that packet. So he read it. 

The only thing they found was a list of groups with “potential Duscur involvement” that included a religious group associated with Garreg Mach university. Christophe was religious, and that was the school he had gone to. He flipped through the file, and saw Cristophes name as a person of interest. It mentioned his mysterious disappearance as a suspicious factor, and suggested making an APB on his name and photo.

Had Cristophe fled? 

It was easy to create a story where Cristophe was living in witness protection, and waiting for Ashe to clear his name! And then he could come home. Ashe could easily imagine himself, poring over microfiche to find the piece of evidence that would clear his brother’s name. 

Except, even in the letter, he was a potential suspect who was missing. The disappearance had happened before he was suspected of any crime. Maybe he had committed a crime, but for a good cause.

Either way, he needs to go to Garreg Mach. He started planning while brushing his teeth and fell asleep thinking about how much a train ticket will cost, and how to convince Lysithea or Cyril to cover his shift.

* * *

Ashe waited as long as possible before calling Felix. He didn’t want to look desperate or anything. He really tried. He made coffee, checked his phone, ate a bowl of cereal on his couch, started working on his homework, thought of Felix instead of his reading. went back to look at the pile of papers all over the table.

It was still early, but not too early to call someone. Anyway, he would just send a text. “Thanks for all your help!! I found something, but it’s in garreg mach. Let me know if you need me to return those papers.” 

Ashe had managed to look away from his phone for two minutes when it buzzed.

“There was something useful?”

After a moment’s embarrassment, since apparently even Felix didn’t think they would find anything useful in there, his phone buzzed again.

“What did you find?”

Ashe, like an idiot responded “come over, you can look at it yourself”

  
“There’s only one.”

“Also I have coffee!”

And then sent his address. But after breaking into a building, stealing classified documents, and kissing Felix, it couldn’t be that weird to have him over for breakfast. But, also he probably had work, or other plans, that would make it impossible to come over just because Ashe wanted to see him and talk over a stolen piece of paper. 

His phone buzzed. “See you soon.”

Ashe realized he had no idea how long it would take for Felix to get to his apartment. So he spent the next 20 minutes frantically cleaning. He thought he kept his apartment pretty neat, but the thought of Felix seeing it made him 

Having Felix in his house should have been a lot weirder. Instead it was nice. He had been so nervous once Felix arrived he had offered him just about every possible drink and food item he had around. But now they both had cups of coffee and were sitting on the couch, looking at the last paper 

Felix looked up at him, and down at the paper a few times. Ashe might have thought he looked intense- he still kind of did- but now Ashe could see he looked thoughtful, and concerned.

“So what are you going to do now?” He said.

“I guess I’m going to go down to Garreg Mach,” Ashe said. Even though he spent all last night thinking about it, telling Felix made it feel like a real plan.   
  
“I was about to buy a bus ticket, it’s not such a bad trip.” He continued.

“I could come with you,” Felix said. “You might need help, finding answers, or a lookout even.”

Ashe had only planned to interview people, not to break into any more buildings. But it would be really nice to have Felix with him.

“It would be nice. But only if you want, and don’t have any plans, and, “ He couldn’t think of another reason for Felix not to come.

“I do want,” said Felix, sounding amused. “I’ve come this far with you, I want to see this through.”

He then added, prickly “And because I can’t watch you throw yourself at this on your own.”

“Thanks, Felix” Ashe said.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has been converted for free using [AOYeet!](https://aoyeet.space) truly a lifesaver
> 
> If you haven't gotten a chance to look at Catatune's fantastic art for this fic it's [here](https://twitter.com/catatune/status/1357419838730338312?s=21)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and I would love to read any comments!!


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